On the field theoretical formulation of the electron-proton scattering in the Coulomb and Lorentz gauges

Abstract

The relativistic three dimensional (3D) Lippmann-Schwinger-type equations for the $ep$ scattering amplitude is derived based on unitarity condition in the usual quantum electrodynamic (QED). The $ep$ scattering potential $V_{e'N',eN}$ consists of the leading one off mass shell photon exchange part and the nonlocal multi-particle exchange potential. Unlike to the other field-theoretical equations, both protons in the unitarity condition and in $V_{e'N',eN}$ are on mass shell. Therefore in this approach are not required the multi-variable input photon-nucleon vertexes with the off mass shell nucleons. In the present formulation the standard leading one photon exchange potential $V_{OPE}$ is generated by the canonical equal-time anti commutator between the electron source and the interacted electron fields which are sandwiched by the one nucleon asymptotic states. This anticommutator is calculated in the Coulomb and Lorentz gauges, where only the transverse parts of the photon fields are quantized. It is shown, that the leading one photon exchange potentialn$V_{OPE}$ in the Coulomb and Lorentz gauges coincide. The complete set of the next to leading order terms which are generated by the static electric (Coulomb) interaction are exactly reproduced.